Reciprocating platen printer with spring biased platen control arms

ABSTRACT

An adjustable guide member for maintaining a parallel relationship between the planar surface of a platen and the printing surface of an indicium, or printing, plate. The platen is normally spaced from, and is rockable in a vertical path toward, the printing plate to press mail matter to be printed, such as envelopes, against the printing plate to receive an impression.

United States atent Helmut K. Waibel San Lorenzo, Calii. [21] Appl. No.831,327

[22] Filed June 9, 1969 [45] Patented Aug. 24, 1971 [73] Assignee TheSinger Company [72] Inventor s41 RECIPROCATING PLATEN PRINTER WITHSPRING BIASED PLATEN CONTROL ARMS 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl. 101/316, 101/287, 101/292 [51] Int. Cl B41f1/06, 1341f 1/54[50] FieldofSearch 101/287, 297, 301, 310, 316, 318, 368, 291, 292, 298;74/53, 524

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,078,281 11/1913 Hay101/318X 1,172,897 2/1916 Merrick 101/318 2,344,609 3/1944 Hanson101/297 3,244,096 4/1966 Riley 101/297 401,455 4/1889 Nelson.... 101/318701,071 5/1902 Moody 101/287 X 1,111,655 9/1914 Jones 172/500X 1,800,7044/1931 $13111 101/287 UX 1,942,749 1/1934 Durrant el al 101/2982,821,135 1/1958 Larrabee 101/287 3,379,129 4/1968 Harrison 101/316Primary Examiner-William B. Penn Assistant Examiner-4E. M. CovenAu0rneys- Patrick J. Schlesinger and Charles R. Lepchinsky ABSTRACT: Anadjustable guide member for maintaining a parallel relationship betweenthe planar surface of a platen and the printing surface of an indicium,or printing, plate. The platen is normally spaced from, and is rockablein a vertical path toward, the printing plate to press mail matter to beprinted, such as envelopes, against the printing plate to receive animpression.

Patented Aug. 24, 1971 3,601,047

iNVENTOR.

57 elmur @flQUaibal GM Q ATTORNEY RECIPROCATING PLATEN PRINTER WITHSPRING BIASED PLATEN CONTROL ARMS BACKGROUND or THE INVENTION 1. Fieldof the Invention The invention relates to printing apparatus such aspostage meters wherein the indicium plate is horizontally disposed andis supported in a stationary manner within the framework of theapparatus. A piece of mail matter is positioned to receive a postageimpression as a pivotally supported platen is rocked upwardly to pressthe mail matter against the indicium plate.

2. Description of the Prior Art In known devices, a crank arm is rockedthrough an arc to impart a rocking movement to a control arm at the endof which a platen is pivotally supported. As the arm is rocked, and theplaten moves upwardly, the planar surface of the platen must bemaintained parallel to the printing surface of the indicum plate.Inasmuch as the greater mass of the platen is above the pivotal support,the platen tends to rock in one direction or the other, relative to theparallel plane. Thereafter, as'the platen moves upwardly, and theenvelope, or other mail matter, is compressed against then indiciumplate for a postage impression, the applied force causes the planarsurface of the platen to return to its parallel relationship with theprinting plate. In so doing, the envelope is moved laterally across thesurface of the indicium plate, causing a smearing of the impression.

The problem has been corrected to a small degree by providing a pin on adepending portion of the platen, the pin being on a center lineperpendicular to the platen surface. In engagement with this pin is oneend of a single turn torsion spring, the other end of which is engagedwith a pin on the base of the device. The spring serves to bias theplaten downwardly in an effort to maintain a parallel relationship ofthe platen to the indicium plate. However, for the torsion spring to becompletely effective to control unalterably the parallel relationship ofthe two members, it must be quite strong. With the use of asufficientlystrong spring, an added and undesirable load must beovercome with each crank operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, aprinting device is provided with a stationary printing plate and a pairof platens normally spaced from the printing plate to enable theplacement of an envelope therebetween. An operating means in the form ofa crank arm is operable, when rocked, to move the platens toward theprinting plate pressing the envelope into contact therewith. In theirmovement toward the printing plate, the surface of the platens isunalterably maintained in parallel relationship to the printing plate bymeans of a guide member controlling the path of travel of the platens.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary plan view of apostage metering machine showing the platen control mechanism;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional elevational view of a portion of apostage metering machine, the view being taken on the plane indicatedbyline 22 in FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 is a transverse sectional elevational view, showing the platensand their guide members.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, acoplanar indicium, or printing, die plate is secured in place betweeneach of frame plates 11 and 12 mounted in spaced parallel relationshipon a base 15. The printing plate 10 includes the postal indicium, thepostage value printing die members and the town circle and date printingsurfaces for the printing of postage impressions upon envelopes andother mail matter.

Also secured in the framework of the machine between frame plates 11 and12 is an envelope supporting table 16 (FIG. 2) the horizontal topsurface of which is spaced below,.

and is parallel with, a coplanar surface of the printing plate 10.Within the horizontally disposed portion of the table 16 is arectangular opening 17 in registry with the printing plate 10. As anenvelope E to be printed is placed upon the table 16, as seen in FIG. 2,means are actuated to be move the envelope into printing contact withthe printing plate 10, whereupon the postage impression is caused to bemade.

For this purpose, a pair of platens, generally indicated at 18 and 19,are normally disposed in spaced relationship to the printing plate 10and directly beneath the aperture 17 in the supporting table 16.Generally, each of the platens 18 and 19 comprises a flexible pad 20 and21, respectively, supported in carrier frames 22 and 23 (FIG. 3). Thetop surfaces of the pads 20 and 21 are coplanar, with the pad 20 beingeffective upon movement toward the printing plate 10 to cause animpression of a slogan to be made on an envelope B. At the same time,the pad 21 presses the envelope E into contact with the postal indiciumarea of the printing plate 10 including the postage value, town circleand date to complete the postage impression.

Although the carrier frames 22 and '23 are basically similar, the padsupporting portion and pad 20 of the carrier 22 is substantially square,while the pad supporting portion and pad 21 of carrier 23 is rectangularin shape as seen in FIG. 1. The lower end of each of the carrier frames22 and 23 is bifurcated to receive the end portion of respective arms 27and 28. Arm 27, at its outer extremity, serves to pivotally supportcarrier 22 by means of a pin 29. Similarly, arm 28, at its outer end,pivotally supports carrier frame 23 by means of a pin 30 (FIG. 3). Theparallel depending extensions 31 of carrier frame 22 carry a pin 32,spanning the opening therebetween. Likewise, the depending parallelextensions 33 of the carrier frame 23 carry a pin 34 spanning theopening therebetween. The pins 32 and 34 are axially aligned and serve apurpose to be described hereinafter.

At their one end, the arms 27 and 28 are maintained in spaced parallelrelationship by a suitable spacer pin 38 (FIG. 1), while at their otherend, the arms 27 and 28 are laterally offset inwardly and carryrespective hubs 39 and 40 to rockably support the arms on a shaft 41secured at its respective ends in frame members 11 and 12. Adjacent itsextremity, the offset end of each of arms 27 and 28 overlies therespective projected ends of a pin 42 supported in each of identicalspaced parallel lever arms 43, intermediate the ends thereof. At its oneend, each arm 43 is secured to the respective ends of a sleeve 44rockably supported on the shaft 41 between the inwardly offset ends ofthe arms 27 and 28. The inner surface of the extended offset end of thearms 27 and 28 is contiguous with the outer surface of the respectivelever arms 43. At their other end, the lever arms 43 support a roller 45therebetween carried by a shaft 53 secured at its ends in the arms 43.Roller 45 is adapted for engagement with a cam arm 46 secured on a driveshaft 50 journaled in frame members 11 and 12. The roller 45 is normallymaintained in engagement with cam arm 46 by a spring 51, supported atits one end in clip 52 carried at one end of the roller shaft 53 and theother end of the spring 51 being supported on a pin 54 secured on framemember 12. At its outer extended end and adjacent frame member 12, driveshaft 50 carries a crank arm 55 secured thereon and adaptable, upon apredetermined angular movement thereof, to rock cam arm 46 movingplatens l8 and 19 upwardly toward the indicium printing plate 10.

As cam arm 46 is rocked counterclockwise, as viewed in FIG. 2, aclockwise motion is imparted to the lever arms 43, which motion servesthrough a relatively strong compression spring 56 to impart a clockwiseangular rocking movement to the platen support arms 27 and 28. As thelever arms 43 and support arms 27 and 28 are actuated, the platens l8and 19 are moved upwardly to move envelope E into printing contact withthe indicium plate 10. At its one end, spring 56 engages a pin carriedby a T-shaped bar 57 engaged in identical notches 58 in lever arms 43.At its other end, the spring 56 engages a pin projecting outwardly froma flat chordal surface of a shaft 59 disposed between a dependingportion or ear of each of platen control arms 27 and 28, similar to thedepending ear 63 of the arm 28, as seen in FIG. 2. Each end portion ofshaft 59 is of a reduced diameter and is disposed in suitable notches inthe depending ears of the platen control arms 27 and 28, such as notch64 within the depending car 63.

Normally, spring 56 is under sufficient compression to maintain theright-hand end of each of the arms 27 and 28 in engagement with thecorresponding ends of the pin 42 carried by lever arms 43, as seen inFIGS, 1 and 2. Thus, as the crank arm 55 is rocked a predeterminedangular extent, a similar motion is imparted to the cam arm 46, whichbecomes effective to rock the lever arms 43 and platen control arms 27and 28 concomitantly. Thus, the platens 18 and 19 are moved upwardlythrough the aperture 17 in the envelope support 16 to lift the envelopeE into contact with the indicium printing plate 10. After the initialcontact of the envelope E with the printing die has been made, furtherrocking movement of the cam arm 46 continues to rock the lever arms 43slightly, independently of the platen control arms 27 and 28, wherebythe spring 56 is compressed to effect printing pressure of the envelopeagainst the printing plate 10 to produce a clear postage impression.Upon completion of the printing operation and restoration of crank arm55 to its normally inactive position, spring 51 is effective to returnthe platens 18 and 19 to their normally inactive position shown in FIG.2.

In order to ensure complete surface contact of the envelope E with thesurface of the printing plate 10, upon operation of crank arm 55, theplaten pads 20 and 21 must move upwardly in their vertical path oftravel with the surface of the pads unalterably parallel with thecoplanar surface of the printing plate 10. For this purpose, asubstantially U-shaped guide bracket 65 is flexibly supported on a boss66, cast or otherwise formed on the base 15. The guide bracket 65 ispositioned on the boss 66 so that the greater portion of the U-shapedmember extends beyond the edge of the boss 66 and is adjustably securedin place by means of a pair of screws 67. The screws 67 are passedthrough suitable enlarged apertures in an extension of the web portionof the bracket 65 for threaded engagement in the boss 66. An upwardlyextended flange 68 of the U-shaped bracket 65 is disposed within theopening in the carrier frame 22 between the depending extensions 31thereof. Similarly, an upstanding flange 69 of the U-shaped bracket 65is spaced from, and is parallel with, the flange 68 terline through thecenter of the shaft 41, they move upwardly in an arc from the at restposition shown in FIG. 2, upon rocking of arms 27 and 28. Thus, thelower end portion of the slots 70 in each of the flanges 68 and 69 isangularly formed relative to the vertical center line of the upperportion of the slot so that, as the platens 18 and 19 move upwardly,they remain substantially parallel to the printing surface of the plate10. As the platens 18 and 19 approach the full extent of their movement,the disposition of the upper portion of the slots 70 is such that theplaten surfaces are parallel to the coplanar surface of the printingplate 10 and a complete pressure contact of the envelope E with theplate 10 is assured.

What is claimed is:

1. In a printing device having a framework including frame memberssupported on a base,

a stationary printing die plate having a planar surface mounted on saidframe m embers, a platen reciprocative relative to said planar surfaceof said printing die and normally spaced below said die for receiving aworkpiece thereon,

a pair of spaced parallel arms rockable about a fixed horizontal axisand having a pivotal support for said platen to control reciprocativemovement of said platen relative to said printing die,

a lever supported for rocking movement about said horizontal axis,

said horizontal axis being common to said arms and said lever,

a roller mounted on said lever,

.a compression spring connecting said arms and said lever adapted forcompression therebetween to effect a rocking movement of said arms bysaid lever,

a cam engaging said roller and rockable a predetermined angular extentto rock said lever thereby moving said platen in a reciprocative path,

a manipulatable member for controlling an angular rotation of said cam,and

means for guiding said platen in said reciprocative path to maintain aparallel relationship between the surfaces of said platen and said die,the combination comprising,

a bracket secured on said base having an arm extended perpendicular tosaid base, and

a vertically disposed slot in said bracket arm having the upper end openand the lower end portion thereon formed at an angle to the vertical toconform with the arcuate path of the pivotal support for said platen onsaid parallel arms upon rocking of said parallel arms,

said platen including a horizontally disposed pin for engagement in saidvertical slot in said bracket arm to guide said platen in its path ofmovement upon operation of said manipulable member whereby the surfaceof said platen is maintained parallel to the surface of said printingdie as the workpiece is moved by said platen into printing contact withsaid printing die.

1. In a printing device having a framework including frame memberssupported on a base, a stationary printing die plate having a planarsurface mounted on said frame members, a platen reciprocative relativeto said planar surface of said printing die and normally spaced belowsaid die for receiving a workpiece thereon, a pair of spaced parallelarms rockable about a fixed horizontal axis and having a pivotal supportfor said platen to control reciprocative movement of said platenrelative to said printing die, a lever supported for rocking movementabout said horizontal axis, said horizontal axis being common to saidarms and said lever, a roller mounted on said lever, a compressionspring connecting said arms and said lever adapted for compressiontherebetween to effect a rocking movement of said arms by said lever, acam engaging said roller and rockable a predetermined angular extent torock said lever thereby moving said platen in a reciprocative path, amanipulatable member for controlling an angular rotation of said cam,and means for guiding said platen in said reciprocative path to maintaina parallel relationship between the surfaces of said platen and saiddie, the combination comprising, a bracket secured on said base havingan arm extended perpendicular to said base, and a vertically disposedslot in said bracket arm having the upper end open and the lower endportion thereon formed at an angle to the vertical to conform with thearcuate path of the pivotal support for said platen on said parallelarms upon rocking of said parallel arms, said platen including ahorizontally disposed pin for engagement in said vertical slot in saidbracket arm to guide said platen in its path of movement upon operationof said manipulable member whereby the surface of said platen ismaintained parallel to the surface of said printing die as the workpieceis moved by said platen into printing contact with said printing die.